This means he can be replaced with another Democrat
Graham Platner can be replaced as the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine if he withdraws from the race by next Monday, and state law would then give the state Democratic Party until July 27 to name a replacement.
The majority is on the line. If there was ever a time for the establishment to step aside for a young, energetic progressive who can rally support quickly, this is the time. No fundraising roadblocks. Go full tilt.
Lol that will never happen, they are OK with losing as long as a progressive doesn’t end up in office. Just look at the 2024 election they chose the weakest candidate they could with Kamala who had gotten like 3% of the vote in the 2020 democratic primary before dropping out.
They will choose a Zionist who takes money from AIPAC, loves data centers, is 70 years old, and wealthy. Then they will blame voters when they lose in Maine.
Basically your saying the higher ups will block any young hopefull that has ideas, and make sure another old white dude with money is the choice, right?
Nah, it’ll be an old rich white woman this time: Janet Mills, probably…
This feels, like, more-so-than ever before, like pressure from Israel/ AIPAC. I just, it would be literally insane for Platner to deny this if its in any way true. At least like this. As categorically as its being done. And now, as I’m listening to coverage in real time, its all “I told you so’s” from Democratic party talking heads.
This feels insanely corrupt.
Yeah. I agree. If he does face trial for this, his press conference where he vehemently denies the rape will be played on repeat during the sentencing as evidence of a lack of remorse. Hell, lawyers would tell you not to publicly deny it, just in case some details of your public denial later serve as evidence to damn you.
However, I give this a 0.01% chance of actually going to trial. Inevitably the accusers will have a relapse of their PTSD and be unable to press charges.
I don’t know about Maine, but obstruction is itself a crime. If they know, and present this kind of high level denial…
Well simply denying a crime isn’t obstruction of justice.
Is it if you have specific knowledge of a crime occurring?
Obstruction of justice requires a physical, usually forceful, act. Like physically blocking cops from serving a warrant.
Simply being like “I didn’t do it” or whatever his statements were… is not obstruction.
None of that matters here. He’s unelectable. He can’t win. Doesn’t matter if he did, doesn’t matter if it’s fair. Trials can’t happen that quickly any way; and there’s plenty of other shit that he can’t power through.
(I do happen to believe the allegations. Maybe not fields… that’s a bit suspect… but the others.)
I believe it generally requires concrete actions. Think destroying incriminating evidence when you know you’re under investigation. Alternately, lying to police and especially federal investigators might get obstruction of justice charges. But unless you’re lying to the FBI during an interrogation, then just defending yourself in public is not obstruction of justice. After all, it’s generally perfectly legal to lie. Lies that produce certain material ends (such as fraud) can be crimes, but simply lying about something is not a crime. If I wanted to, it would be perfectly legal for me to go around lying to my friends, telling them I earn a massive salary at a high-status career. Lying itself isn’t illegal. However, if I lie to a bank, and use my fake job claim to secure a loan, then I’ve crossed the line into fraud.
The only people who destroyed evidence was his accuser. No prosecutor would touch this case, even Lionel Hutz would bring up the 5 year delay and timing with politics.
Whoa whoa whoa. Your telling me that wood scientist isn’t a massive salary, high status career?
So youre telling me Brude Hoadly lied to me?
Bingo. Platner got Gary Hart’d. Spoiler alert: there will be no rape charges, and two women will get a lucrative book deal.
Yeah this woman totally started sowing the seeds of his political upheaval years before he ever got into politics lmao gtfo rape apologist
Bruv, misogyny is a bad look, man.
So is being overly credulous when a staunch critic of Israel gets relentlessly smeared this close to an election, especially when he’s a democratic socialist.
But sure, I’m sure the real issue here is misogyny… 🙄
Yeah, Israel knew so far in advance that he was going to run that they had this woman raped and talk to her friends and therapist in person and via text JUST IN CASE Platner got far enough in an election cycle to worry them years down the road.
Certainly more believable than a man with a drinking problem and violent tendencies forcing himself on a woman he had a casual relationship with /s
Folk also are too dumb to realize:
IF this was some evil campaign to make the Democrats lose… they would have just waited a week until platner couldn’t be replaced. Why run against anyone but the violent nazi mercenary who rapes people and who knows what else at this point?
Because the AIPAC-supported establishment Dems felt every bit as threatened by Platner as they would by Susan Collins, and would relish the opportunity to replace him while there’s still time…
And THEY chose to wait until the last minute to all but guarantee a loss? Rather than do this any time in the past since there had been plenty of facebook groups and the like that talked about platner being really dangerous and to never date him?
Ah yes, the “every allegation is true” crowd strikes again. I’m honestly not surprised…
And I’m not surprised you’d rather believe conspiracy theories than women.
“Conspiracy theories”?
A democratic socialist that establishment dems and magats alike hate and fear, who’s vocally critical of israel and has been relentlessly smeared since his campaign was launched, yet managed to remain popular because he was offering people what they really want (common sense, pro-worker, socialist policy). His pro-war, AIPAC-sponsored opponent drops out weeks before the primary because the writing is on the wall, it looks hopeful that Dems might reclaim a senate majority, and get a DSA member on the Senate besides, and then suddenly someone remembers this thing that *totally happened* to her 5 years ago, and it gets published in Politico, which is a well-known right wing zionist rag.
Oh but all of the “evidence” amounts to “trust me bro,” “yeah there were totally texts, I just happened to delete them,” and “look I talked to my therapist about it a couple weeks ago, see these emails?”
You say “women” as if they’re a monolith who never lie. That’s kinda anti-feminist, don’t you think? This isn’t “women.” It’s “a woman,” and you’d think a feminist would understand the difference. I guess Susan Collins could never lie either, right? Would you rather have her in the Senate than a progressive man? Is it misogynist to say “No more Susan Collins please.”?
I have no problem believing women with credible accusations, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is an obvious political hit piece. And the mentality that we should “believe women” absolutely 100% of the time in every case just makes it easier for the right-wing and centrist dems to do character assassination any time a candidate who’s too progressive starts getting popular. If you can’t see the unintended consequences of that then you lack foresight.
By the way, Emmett Till’s murderers believed a woman unconditionally. We see how that went…
They’re a fed. Or a useful idiot. We lost this week. With the margin being what is is we may have lost overall.
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Poster is absolutely being misogynist by asserting that both of these women are lying in order to get paid and get book deals.
Democrats will stop rapists until someone on their team does it. Then all women are liars and cheaters. No sexism here at all!
The Platner supporters are getting really desperate here, too. I’m completely disgusted by some of the reactions on the left to this.
Just goes to show that 2026 Democrats are 2016 Republicans. Rape doesn’t matter now. Who cares what some women say, we have a white man to elect!
I mean his suspension speech is basically saying, without saying it, that the call is coming from inside the house. He’s saying this is insider Democrats doing this, and then almost instantly, there is this announcement from Maine DNC on how its going to work, and lo-and-behold, they’re doing an insider only process with you guessed it, super delegates.
Look its been a hard 24-48 hour roller coaster. I’ve been supportive of Graham, vocally so. I heard this new accusation, it seems highly credible, and I looked at it, and I said, Graham is going to have to step down.
There were plenty here, including @WoodScientist@lemmy.world who pushed back that there actually was no evidence in this accusation. And now, suddenly there is this announcement from Maine DNC on how its going to work, and lo-and-behold, they’re doing an insider only process with you guessed it, super delegates.
And Platner is categorically denying all of this, which is a criminal accusation. You don’t do that if you don’t plan on going to court and winning. Now I’ve got fucking whiplash from all this.
What I never saw once during the discussion over the last 48 hours is, what exactly is someone supposed to do if they’re falsely accused of rape when running for office? Because the current standard seems to be that it’s a guaranteed way to tank any campaign. And all you have to do to tank any candidate you don’t like is find some old ex of theirs, and offer them money or threaten them into making a false accusation.
And what people really missed was that political ratfucking is ALWAYS designed to sound reasonable. Everyone already knew that Platner was/is a bit of a creep. So a rape allegation would seem in character. You craft an allegation that fits the person. If someone has complicated business dealings, you accuse them of fraud. If someone has a long military career they’re running on, you accuse them of cowardice or dereliction of duty. If someone has some misogyny in their past, you accuse them of rape. In no case will a false accusation ever make people go, “now that’s not likely, that doesn’t sound like something he would do.” If AOC runs for Senate, she won’t be targeted with rape allegations, it will be something more believable.
“Nothing” seemed to work pretty well for Joe Biden. When your accuser has messages regarding you being a rapist dating back to years before you ever ran for office, and your friends corroborate that you’ve never once changed your story, then the only reasonable option is to step down
You know how I know that’s bullshit? There are no credible rape allegations against Zohran Mamdani. If it was that easy to tank someone’s campaign, they would have done that the second he gained literally any popularity
Yes. I think you had the right of it, and I had the wrong of it. At least in part, in that, regardless, I knew that Platner would be stepping down.
Something I noted is that Platner said he “would” be filing the paper work. But he has not filed it yet. He does that bit of leverage, but I don’t know where this goes. Its bonkers. Like, if you did what he’s accused of and is denying it, like, he’s fucked. Beyond fucked. Like decades in prison fucked. And he knows that. And thats not the video he posted.
Where do you think it goes from here? What should Platner do?
I honestly don’t know what he should do. And frankly, I’m not willing to say he’s innocent. My thoughts through this whole thing have just been that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions without properly investigating things.
First and foremost: At the best of times, accusations of sexual assault and rape are “he said she said”. The defense is almost always “Well, she is a slut who told me she wanted it rough”. Because on the off chance the victim actually managed to get a rape kit done in time AND the chain of evidence was maintained… all that really says is that sexual activity occurred and that there may or may not be signs of physical trauma.
And when you factor in rapists being predators who tend to target victims where it is even easier to discredit them (high risk behaviors like drug use or… wearing a skirt)? And cops tending to be bastards who actively don’t want to investigate things?
This is why victims don’t come forward. The best they can hope for is a slap on the wrist for the rapist and their entire life to have been thrown under a microscope and attacked. So mostly they just try to recover and live a life in a society that has actively failed them.
But as for
That is exactly what everyone did when Lyndsey Fifield came forth. Basically everyone dismissed it because she is a republican. She was a slut. She deserved it. She is a lying bitch who just wants his sperm. Fucking whore was asking for it.
And that is why Jenny Racicot was brave enough to came forth and talked about platner violently raping her.
So… maybe educate yourself a bit more before you have any more “thoughts” that would make people think you are someone who is calling rape victims liars?
And yes, men are raped too but their reasons for not coming forward tend to be different. Although the societal abuse and shame aspects remain.
Well I think your sentiment is right. But I’m like… my head is spinning after the past three days.
well as we know this “movement” is just a protest. as long as you pass the purity test any old or young scumbag can qualify and get full support from the cult
we like those nasty ones as long as they’re beating up israelis right